The CBSE Class 12 results for Delhi were announced on Thursday and with the number of students scoring over 95% growing by nearly 3,000, cut-offs at Delhi University are expected to soar.

While colleges refused to give specific figures, experts believe the cut-off in science courses may be up by almost 2%, while in commerce and humanities, the jump may range between 0.5% and 2%.

Following the trend of the last four years, the 95% club expanded again — adding 2,975 students nationwide this year. In Delhi — home to all-India topper Sarthak Aggarwal who scored a staggering 99.6%, the highest ever — the number shot up to 2,423 from 1,523 last year.

All stream toppers are from the Delhi NCR region this year, said BM Gupta, advisor, computer unit, CBSE. The high scores, however, may become a cause of worry since high-profile colleges use the 95%-figure to decide their cut-offs.

“A hike in cut-offs is inevitable as children are getting more marks. I know it is stressful for aspirants and their parents but we have to keep in mind the competition and the limited number of seats” said the principal of a top DU college.

The number of students with more than 95% marks climbed to 8,971, as compared to 5,996 last year. The nation-wide pass percentage increased from 82.10% to 82.66% this year, with girls outperforming boys yet again.

Improved show

An improved pass percentage and exceptionally high marks is what the results brought forward on Thursday.

An increase of 0.56 percentage points was seen in the pass percentage. Girls, as usual, outperformed boys, this year by almost 10%.

Delhi boy, Sarthak Aggarwal emerged as the overall topper in the country. He scored 99.6% in the science stream. He was followed by G Harikrishna with 99.2% in the commerce stream. Mugdh Sethia and Vasudha Dixit were toppers in their respective streams with 98.8% each.

This year, 302549 students had registered for the CBSE class 12 exam in Delhi out of which 297466 appeared in the exam. Students from 1618 schools had appeared for the exams at 663 exam centres in the national Capital.

Merit certificates

Each year, merit certificates are awarded to the top 0.1% students in each subject. The certificates present a mixed bag this year.

In English (core), a subject which is crucial to Delhi University cut-offs as it is to be included in the best of four percentage for most subjects, the number of merit certificates has gone up. As compared to 1498 certificates last year, this year 1697 certificates have been given to all those students who scored 97 marks or more in the subject.

The merit certificates for mathematics, like last year, were given for a perfect score of 100. The number of students who got the certificate has climbed up from 701 last year to 1069 this year. This is expected to lead to a slight jump in the cut-offs for science and economics subjects in DU.

Accountancy, this year, saw fewer students score more than the 99 required to get a merit certificate. The number dropped from 403 last year to 254 this year. Physics also saw fewer merit certificates as did economics. Biology saw a spike in the number of certificates.

Unfair means

The number of cases in which students used unfair means actually came down this year. In 2013, 63 such cases were reported while this year only 41 such cases were reported.

The maximum number of cases of cheating - 13 - was registered in Delhi. It is, however, down from 25 last year. At the second spot is Patna with seven cases, followed by Bhubaneshwar (6), Dehradun (5), Panchkula (5), Guwahati (3) and Chennai and Allahabad with one case each.

Revaluation

Students, from this year, can also get their answer scripts revaluated. According to CBSE, only candidates applying for verification of marks will be eligible to apply for a photocopy of evaluated answer books and those obtaining such photocopies then will be eligible to seek revaluation in the identified subject.